VIEWPOINT: Tech to the rescue

Rob Mather Today’s commercial aerospace and defence Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) organisations are facing mounting challenges — the double whammy of an ageing workforce and an insufficient pipeline of new skilled talent. At the same time, MRO teams must keep ageing aircraft mission-ready despite ongoing supply chain challenges—while also gearing up to support a new generation of advanced engine platforms. It’s a perfect storm of operational complexity that calls for smarter, faster, and more adaptive solutions. The commercial MRO industry’s workforce is ageing at a staggering rate. Workers approaching retirement age, between 55 and 60, make up 35% of the workforce, while those between 18 and 30 represent only a single-digit percentage. Reports estimate the industry will need 690,000 new technicians over the next 20 years. The defence sector is facing a similar struggle, with 48% of defence employers stating they have a shortage in engineering skills and a quarter reporting a shortage in manufacturing and mechanical expertise. These challenges have been exacerbated by the recruitment of new technicians failing to match the rising demand for MRO. Look at the bigger picture—it’s more than inadequate recruitment A major catalyst for the current labour shortage was the pandemic, a time when many MROs faced financial difficulties and opted to furlough employees or offer older technicians early retirement. Throughout the pandemic, demand for commercial and defence MROs dropped, leading to many pausing their recruitment—which is a major contribution to the workforce age gap we see today. The answer is not as simple as replacing experienced technicians with junior technicians. Experienced technicians come with legacy knowledge, enabling them to efficiently identify, troubleshoot, and solve problems. In comparison, junior technicians often lack this hands-on knowledge, leaving them reliant on manuals or the guidance of more experienced colleagues to complete tasks. This type of legacy knowledge cannot simply be passed on; it requires years of experience and is typically hard-won firsthand or shared in real-time by seasoned technicians. To add to the MROs’ mounting challenges, aircraft fleets are getting older, but they’re not ageing out. In 2023, it was estimated that one-third of the 30,000 commercial aircraft in operation were over 20 years old. During the pandemic, new aircraft orders and fleet renewal programs were put on hold to cut costs—and many organisations are still playing catch-up. As a result, more airlines are still operating older aircraft or reintroducing retired aircraft which require more maintenance to keep them in operation as components age, decay, and fail. It’s not as simple as out with the old and in with the new for MRO organisations The commercial aviation industry is driven by efficiency and managing tight margins, but continuing to operate with older aircraft is having a serious impact. Consequently, many commercial airlines are seeking newer, more efficient aircraft. However, major aircraft manufacturers’ failures to meet demand have slowed or prevented this fleet renewal. Boeing has faced a host of challenges from supply chain disruptions, testing phase failures, in-flight issues, and workforce strikes. In January 2024, the FAA temporarily grounded all 737-9 MAX aircraft and forced Boeing to halt production of the 737 MAX, after a blowout of a 737-9 MAX door plug during a flight. As a result, many airlines pivoted to the Airbus A320 family aircraft, but they have had their own supply chain issues for aircraft components. This left a significant gap in new aircraft supply, and with demand rising, airlines had to keep operating older aircraft. Bringing aircraft out of retirement and storage increases demand for MRO technicians while awaiting the new, less maintenance-intensive aircraft deliveries. Older aircraft also heighten safety risk as technicians are under pressure to deal with the associated increased workloads as new protocols put strain on existing systems. New engine platforms add to the MRO headache The commercial aviation and defence sectors are both experiencing a shift in engine types, with the 737-MAX and the A320neo rising in popularity for commercial aircraft and the F-35 rising in deployment by military forces, including Poland and Canada. Although new engine platforms are more efficient and being new, they shouldn’t be more maintenance-intensive from the jump. However, MRO organisations have encountered challenges with the new engine types, such as the 737-MAX engine’s load-reduction mechanism fault, causing harmful smoke to enter the aircraft, or the issues with counterfeit titanium being used in both Boeing and Airbus aircraft. As a result, MROs have had to carry out maintenance on the new engine right away to solve these issues. New airframes and engines come with new training practices and certifications for technicians. MRO organisations need to proactively manage the training of their workforce for the new platforms and balance this with matching their demand to carry out work on legacy platforms. While building new capabilities isn’t anything new for these organisations, the sheer amount of change at once and the capacity required, piled on top of the other pressures, makes it a genuine challenge. Solving the MRO brain drain—it’s time the MRO industry put its house in order To combat the labour shortage and relieve pressure on their current workforce, MROs need to make being a maintenance technician cool to the younger generation, for many of whom, the current state of MRO makes for an undesirable career path. The generation entering the workforce has grown up in the digital world we live in today—Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are nothing unusual, and they have access to personal AI assistants right on their phones. They are looking for more than just old-school monetary incentives. Whether it be improving working conditions, utilising modern technological tools and systems, increasing job awareness at much earlier ages, or making the working environment more favourable for more diverse employees—the industry can do more to increase the recruitment or retention rates of the emergent generation. New digital tools for a new generation of MRO—the technologies are ready now While MRO organisations need to be patient with recruiting the next generation of technicians, in the meantime, they must find ways to increase their maintenance capacity with fewer resources. The answer lies in implementing new technology to automate monotonous tasks, making technicians’ lives easier and reducing the chances of mistakes. This will also help make the job more appealing to a younger workforce with native digital skills and new or different priorities. Ultimately, there are two different groups of digital technology solutions MROs can employ. AI-based solutions can help with monotonous tasks such as procedure research and data entry with the support of an AI Copilot, but also provide optimised task scheduling, planning, and assignment. Meanwhile, non-AI technologies can improve other processes by increasing the use of mobile devices, improving engineer support with AR-supported video calling, enhancing precision and speed with embedded measurement tools, and making supply chains more efficient with e-paper labelling. There are five main areas these digital solutions will help MROs reduce technician workloads, and safety risks, and meet increasing demands: Increase technicians’ hands-on metal time with aviation-specific mobile devices: Traditionally, in the MRO industry, job cards and manuals are on paper, but arming technicians with mobile devices with aviation-specific language models can allow technicians to access these references digitally, request materials from the warehouse, and get solution suggestions. The results are that the technicians never have to leave the aircraft—and the life of a maintenance technician starts to look a lot cooler. Context-switching gives technicians the freedom to be more efficient: By having digital job cards on a mobile device, technicians can pause work and start new tasks proactively, while waiting for parts or materials, keeping them fully productive. Embedded tech equals big efficiency wins: Whether it’s an experienced technician needing to take a live measurement with lidar or an inexperienced technician initiating an augmented reality call with a supporting senior technician—mobile devices enable it all. AI-optimised maintenance: AI tools can analyse data in two different areas of MRO operations. Task sequence optimisation can analyse data to ensure tasks within a given work package are scheduled optimally, while task assignment optimisation uses AI-driven optimisation engines to optimise the assignment of tasks across all available technicians based on skillset, experience, availability, and even physical location. Answering questions, locating procedures, and troubleshooting: AI can do it all, and more: Early use cases of AI Copilot ensure technicians aren’t wasting time painstakingly searching through manuals and documentation. In more advanced cases of AI Agents, the agent can use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to match previously recorded faults or troubleshooting manuals and make proactive suggestions to the technician. The AI and digital tools turning the tide on the MRO brain drain The labour challenges facing commercial and defence MROs are mounting, but the industry can turn the tide by employing new digital tools and processes. These new tools, optimised and driven by AI, will tackle these challenges head-on. These tools in the hands of today’s technicians will ease the pressure of their job, attract the recruitment of new workers, while ensuring the aircraft they work on spend less time in the hangar and more time in the air. (Editor’s Note: Rob Mather is vice president for aerospace and defence at IFS.) For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Matt Driskill at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Head of Sales Kay Rolland at [email protected]